What are the best practices for handling user authentication and password management in PHP applications?

User authentication and password management are critical aspects of web application security. It is important to securely store passwords using hashing algorithms like bcrypt and to never store passwords in plaintext. Additionally, implementing measures like salting passwords and using secure HTTPS connections can further enhance security. 

// Hashing passwords using bcrypt
$password = 'user_password';
$hashedPassword = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// Verifying hashed passwords
if (password_verify($password, $hashedPassword)) {
    // Password is correct
} else {
    // Password is incorrect
}

Keywords

password hashing bcrypt session management CSRF protection secure cookie handling

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